Pontiac's Public Works employees say they were misled on privatization plan

Emergency Financial Manager Lou Schimmel stands inside the Pontiac Department of Public Works building earlier this month. Some employees say they were left in the dark while the city worked on a plan to privatize the department's functions and are now out of a job. The Oakland Press/DUSTIN BLITCHOK

PONTIAC -- The last day on the job for 10 employees at the city's Department of Public Works is Thursday, and some of them say they were misled as the department's functions were contracted out to five private companies.

"We're kept in the dark," said a DPW employee who asked that his name not be used.

"It was promised to us by the (emergency) financial manager that we would be contacted by the (private contractors)," the employee said.

"When we went to sign all of our papers, he stood and told us at the meeting that we would be picked up by local contractors."

Advertisement

Although all 10 of the department's union employees are being laid off, eight qualified for early retirement. The department's supervisory staff of five foremen will stay on and work from an office on the ground floor of City Hall.

Another employee, who said he works in road maintenance and asked not to be identified, said he's one of the two employees who did not qualify for early retirement.

"Two of us (are) hitting the street, and when we were at the table negotiating this, he told me and this other (employee) to our faces, you're not going to be laid off, you're still going to be working here," the employee said, referring to Emergency Financial Manager Lou Schimmel.

The emergency financial manager said no promises were made.

"We certainly didn't guarantee that the contractors would be calling them," Schimmel said. "But, we were told by the various contractors that they were interested in hiring these people."

Department of Public Works Director Cathy Square said the employees should apply with the city's new contractors.

"They've got to be fit. They've got to apply. They've got to pass the drug test. They have to do all the things that people (have done) who left the city and went to work for companies the city has contracted with," she said.

"Nobody's handing out jobs."

Schimmel has said that the privatization of DPW services will save the city $516,701.69 per year and improve city services.

The city is in negotiations to sell the 15-acre DPW yard back to its previous owner, Consumers Energy. The utility once operated a gasification and creosote plant at the site on Wesson Street.

Another employee who works as a mechanic said Schimmel is union-busting.

"They've been successful, because they've gotten rid of everybody in the union. The whole union's gone -- nobody's left," the employee said.

"When I first started working here, there were probably about 150 of us in the union. That was about 12 years ago," he said.

The mechanic said the union could file an unfair labor practices lawsuit against the city.

A call made for comment to Paul Long, a representative at the American Council of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees, was not returned.

Schimmel said the employees who received an early retirement signed off on the deal, along with AFSCME representatives.

"They signed an agreement. We gave them early retirement, which they otherwise would not have had," he said.

"I can't do anymore than what we've done -- we have a signed agreement that they agreed to," Schimmel said. "In fact, the impression we got was that they were thrilled to get the deal. They were thrilled, because otherwise we could've just laid them off. What we did was lay them off and get them an early retirement, so they get a check starting next month for the rest of their life," he said.

The city lowered the number of points required to qualify for retirement -- the sum of a person's age and years of service -- to 60, allowing eight of the 10 to retire, Schimmel said.

"They should be absolutely ecstatic with what they got," he said. "You can't do it both ways. You can't take a special deal and then turn around and complain."

The department's director said the employees were mostly mechanics, in a city that no longer has a vehicle fleet.

"That is the operative term. They were mechanics," Square said. "We no longer have a big fleet. We don't service police cars, we don't have the cars and trucks from United Water (and) we don't collect trash anymore."

The employees haven't been working in their original classifications, Square said.

"They can't have it both ways. They were upset that they weren't doing mechanic's work," she said. "They weren't happy with that. They wanted to retire. They're basically hijacking the story."